The Isle of Wight was well represented at last night’s Beautiful South Awards 2015. The tourism elite of South and South East England gathered at Brighton’s iconic Grand Hotel for the ceremony that recognises excellence and commitment to the tourism industry.
Visit Isle of Wight are celebrating after Newport’s Visitor Centre and Travel Ambassador Scheme picked up the Gold award in the Visitor Information Provider of the Year category.
David Thornton, CEO of Visit Isle of Wight commented: “This is a truly remarkable result considering the Isle of Wight was without any visitor centres for a number of years. In 2013 VIOW started to create a private sector network of tourism points on the Island and the Visitor Centre was only opened 6 months ago. It’s a fantastic achievement”.
A key innovation of The Isle of Wight Visitor Centre are the Travel Ambassadors who work both in the centre and across the Isle of Wight to inspire visitors to truly explore the Island. Experts in car free travel, they promote using sustainable transport to really experience the Island.
Zoe Stroud, LSTF Visitor Project Manager, Visit Isle of Wight, said: “Winning this award is positive proof that our travel ambassadors are doing a fantastic job. They are out and about greeting visitors with a warm welcome as well as supplying the information that visitors need to get the most out of their holiday on the Island”.
There was also a Gold award for Tom’s Eco Lodge, named Self Catering Holiday Provider of the Year. In the Large Visitor Attraction of the Year theIsle of Wight Steam Railway won silver, and bronze awards went to Lower Hyde (Park Resorts) and also Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park in the Holiday Park/Holiday Village of the Year category.
Robin Hill Country Park’s Electric Woods collected a bronze award for Tourism Event of the Year.
Image via@tourismseast
